Auror Training
by LynstHolin
Summary: When Harry Potter has to train in some new Aurors, he's surprised to see who one of the trainees is. Written as a prize for a deviantART contest.


"Training? Don't you have anything else for me to do today, Shacklebolt?"

"Sorry, Potter. There's just nothing else going on. The trainees are waiting for you." Shacklebolt handed over a stack of orientation materials and strode away briskly.

Harry puffed air through his pursed lips. Wonderful. A day spent in the dank cavern that served as the Auror training room. He took an elevator as low as it went, then descended a set of twisty, narrow stairs that seemed to wander under half of London. He grimaced when cold water dripped down the back of his uniform; the stairs meandered underneath one of the many rivers of London that now ran only under the ground. Not for the first time, Harry wondered if the trip to the training room was intended to winnow out the less committed.

The stairs fed right into the training room, which was actually an old chalk mine. Lights hovered close to the white walls and ceiling. There were eleven trainees. Harry noticed immediately that ten of them stood apart from the eleventh one. He was momentarily startled when he realized that the man that stood alone was Draco Malfoy.

The blond looked very thin in his slate-colored trainee uniform, and his close-cropped hair made him look nearly fragile. His sharp chin was lifted haughtily, but his eyes were darting around as if he didn't know where to look. The other trainees stared at Malfoy and whispered. In his two years in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Harry had learned a few things about office politics, and he knew this was a bad situation in the making.

"Good morning," Harry announced. Ten pairs of eyes widened in surprise as they realized that they were going to be trained in by the young man who had defeated the Dark Lord. Malfoy looked at Harry with an unreadable expression. With a wave of his wand, Harry moved a long table and twelve chairs to the middle of the room. "Sit down." Harry took a place at the head of the table. Malfoy took the far end. There were large gaps between him and the other trainees.

Training always started with some questions that were intended to let the trainees get to know one other, but Harry wondered if they might not be a bit awkward with Malfoy in the equation. Training a former Death Eater to be an Auror was not a situation that had come up before. Oh, well. "I'm Harry Potter, and I'll be training you today. Let's hear who you are, and why you want to be an Auror." He nodded to the young woman to his right.

The woman blushed a bit under Harry's gaze. "I'm Audrina Wright, and I've always wanted to be an Auror just like my dad."

The man next to her said, "I'm Max Carter, and I want to put away Dark Wizards, like the one that killed my mother." He gave Malfoy a challenging look.

"Virgil Handke. Snatchers did something bad to my sister. She hasn't been the same since."

"Emil DeGrasse. I think every last Death Eater should be in Azkaban."

"Andy Perkins. I agree with DeGrasse."

"Leroy McElroy, and I don't see why I have to train with a filthy Death Eater!"

"Yeah, what's a Malfoy doing here when he should be getting buggered by a cellmate?"

"He doesn't belong here!"

"I'm going to file a complaint."

"He oughtn't be out among decent folk."

"I'd better not be partnered up with that worm."

"He and his whole family can burn in Hell."

Every other trainee was now glowering at Malfoy, spitting out words meant to wound him. The mood in the room was turning ugly; it was the same ratcheting up of hostility that Harry had witnessed just before last year's Knock Turn Alley riot, just on a smaller scale. Malfoy's face was impassive, but he was turning an astoundingly bright shade of pink.

Harry slammed a fist down on the table, making everyone jump. "There are few things more important for an Auror to know than that his fellow Aurors have his back. In the Muggle military, it's known as unit cohesion, and it can literally be the difference between life and death. If I feel that any of you have an attitude that is detrimental to unit cohesion, I will let Shacklebolt know, and, if he feels it's for the best, you will be released from the Auror training program. Am I clear?" Silence. "_Am I clear_?" Harry heard ten grudging assents. Malfoy just looked at him with... was that admiration? "I haven't heard from you yet, Malfoy."

"I'm Draco Malfoy," the blond said with defiance, "And I'm here because I have learned the difference between right and wrong." He pulled the sleeve of his uniform up, and all the other trainees gawked at the shiny scar tissue that covered the place where the Dark Mark used to be. "If any of you have anything to say to me, it can wait. We're here to be trained to be Aurors, not to-to discuss the past."

"Precisely," Harry said. The rest of the trainees quieted. Harry made note of the ones that looked resentful. They would bear watching. People who were overwhelmed with bitterness did not make good Aurors.

The rest of the morning session was taken up with lists of rules, codes of conduct, office procedures, the boring bibble-babble that Harry hated so much. At a quarter to noon, Harry dismissed them for lunch. "Please stay behind, Malfoy. I'd like to speak to you."

When the last of the other trainees disappeared up the stairs, Malfoy rose from his seat at the far end of the table and walked to Harry, that inscrutable look on his face again. "I'll withdraw from the program."

"What?"

"That's what you wanted to talk to me about, right? My presence is bad for unit cohesion." Malfoy paused, standing ramrod straight before Harry.

"Not at all! That bunch has to learn to respect their co-workers regardless of personal feelings. Any of them that can't will have to go."

Harry wasn't prepared for the way the expression on Malfoy's face changed from defensive blankness to a small, sad-eyed smile. "What did you want to talk to me about then?" Malfoy asked.

"I, ah, just wanted to say how brave it was of you to enroll in Auror training. I'm sure you knew that there would be those who would be... less than welcoming."

Malfoy's smile widened. "In other words, you're amazed that I actually showed some guts for once."

Harry grinned, running a hand through his hair. "I was thinking it, but I wouldn't have actually said it aloud."

"I did try to bring Goyle with me, but he couldn't pass the literacy test. He may be getting a job mucking out cages in the Magical Creatures Department, though."

"Good for him. Well, would you like to go out to lunch? The caf here has been awful ever since Hermione started using it as a jobs program for unwanted elderly house elves. Most of them can't tell the difference between sugar and salt any more. There's a good curry place nearby."

Malfoy gave him a sidelong look. "Are you sure you want to be seen with a Malfoy?"

"I think I can handle it. If any of your classmates say anything about it, I'll get them booted from the program."

"I think you've gone a bit power-mad, Potter," Malfoy tossed back over his shoulder as he started up the stairs.

"Perhaps." Harry hurried after him. He wanted to get a good meal in for the gruelling afternoon training session.


End file.
